I am 
Add me to your networkLotus Notes User Experience = Disease
Lotus Notes has one of the most unpleasant and unwelcoming User Experiences this side of a medium-security prison where the warden has aspirations towards interior design and art instruction. One of the most painful aspects of the Notes experience is the default settings for font size and color in the email window. The default font size (for Macs) is on the order of 7 point type, and the default color for unread messages is — ironically — red. The combination yields a user experience that resembles a bad skin rash. I call it “angry red microNotes” disease, and it looks like this:
Overall, it has an unhealthy affect on one’s state of mind. The undertones of hostility and resentment running throughout are manifold. And naturally, it is impossible to change the default font size and color for the email reader. This is further confirmation for my theory that Notes has yet to escape it’s roots as a thick client for series of unconnected databases.
After three weeks of suffering from angry red microNotes, I realized I was literally going blind from squinting at the tiny type, and went to Google for relief. I found niniX 1.7, a utility that allows Mac based Lotus Notes users the ability to edit the binary format Notes preferences file, and change the font size of the email client. I share it in the hopes that others may break the chains that blind them. This will only solve half the problem — if someone can figure out how to change the default color for unread messages to something besides skin rash red, I will happily share with the rest of the suffering masses (and apparently there are on the order of 118 million of us out there).
But will it always be this (horrible) way?
In Beyond Notes 7.0: IBM Lotus sketches ‘Hannover’ user experience Peter Bochner of SearchDomino.com says this of the next Notes release, “Notes has often been criticized for its somewhat staid user interface. According to IBM’s Bisconti, in creating Hannover, IBM paid attention “to not just the user interface, but the user experience.“
Okay… So does that mean I’ll have my choice of diseases as themes for the user experience of my collaboration environment?
According to Ken Bisconti, IBM Lotus vice president of Workplace, portal and collaboration products, “Through improvements such as contextual collaboration and support for composite apps, we’ve gone above and beyond simple UI enhancement”.
I think simple UI enhancement is exactly what Ken and his team should focus on for the next several years, since they have so much opportunity for improvement.
Related posts:
Category: User Experience (UX)
Tags: collaboration, customer_experience, Enterprise, lotusnotes, mental_models, Tools, userexperience 21 comments »
December 23rd, 2005 at 9:37 am
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your great suggestions about disease themes for Lotus Notes! We are currently working on a “Leprosy” theme where parts of the screen simply fall off and are never to bee seen again.
…but seriously, I am the lead designer for the next version of Lotus Notes, and I encourage you and all of your friends an enemies to register to participate in usability tests. The URL for registering is below.
https://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/usentry.nsf/register?openform
January 10th, 2006 at 11:22 am
Hi again Joe and friends,
As part of the Lotus Notes redesign, we want to more fully understand how people use Bookmarks and the Workspace.
To that end, here is the first of several surveys that we ask you — and all your friends and enemies — to respond to by Friday Feb 17 at midnight GMT. Thanks.
http://www.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/studies/BookmarksWorkspace6.htm
February 13th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Joe,
Could you practice what you’re preaching?
I’m talking about the comments on this site being unreadable! The font-size is too small, the font and background colours do not mix well together — they’re both from the light-colour family …
February 13th, 2006 at 7:54 am
There’s an old expression about glass houses that comes to mind…
If you’re going to criticize font sizes and colors, how about doing something about the reply block on this blog? I’m on a 1152x864 display on a 17″ CRT and the text is just too small. I was able to make the text readable by using my browser’s capability to increase font size, but why is it smaller than the article text in the first place? And why is it grey on a pale yellow background? That definitely makes it harder to read at small size. And if it weren’t for the fact that I know the commenter’s name, there’s no way I would have known with that gold text on the pale yellow background. Even after enlarging the fonts, it’s still difficult.
One more thing: I won’t claim that the Notes UI is great or even good, especially on the Mac, but you are wrong about one thing. You may not be able to change the font size for the mailbox and the color for unread messages through the normal configuration options of the Notes client, but that doesn’t mean that you need to use the niniX editor either. Just about everything in the Notes mailbox is customizable if you have the Domino Designer tool, including font sizes and colors. Granted, it’s not practical to do this customization for every user’s particular tastes, but organization-wide customization is easy and many Notes and Domino customers do it.
February 13th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Ouch. Vivid alliteration really helping your argument there..
Yeah. Notes for Mac v6 is pretty horrible. Notes for mac 7.0.1 is supposed to be gods gift to UI’s. I know, I know — the next version is supposed to be the best, etc.
I’m led to understand that its out *soon* — like in weeks or so.
—* Bill
http;//www.billbuchan.com
Oh — and ironies of ironies — your comments blog renders really small and hard to read.. This is part of the plan, right ?
February 13th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Hi Mary Beth Raven,
I see your team worked hard on the Leprosy theme.
Since your last post, Lotus 7 has been released, installed and even upgraded.
The client still sucks but I don’t care because I don’t use Notes for daily tasks, except programming. If it would be possible to use another IDE to program it, I’d use that too. Did I mention “another IDE”? Sorry, I meant IDE. The designer client is very much integrated, but very little designer environment.
I’ll probably regret this later, but here I go… *click*
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:59 am
Is there a way of changing unread emails from the red colour in Lotus Notes. I am colour blind to the red colour and need to change it to something like blue. Can anyone help?
July 12th, 2006 at 1:36 am
I’d like someone to reply to me on how to change the default colour in an e-mail. It’s bugging me having to always change the colour after I’ve typed the e-mail. Why is Lotus Notes like this? Did they think that there users may not like the colour black on e-mail?
July 12th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
I know of one solution for Mac based users of Notes, documented above, which requires installing a program called niniX.
I’m sure there are options for Windows based Notes users as well — you’ll need to investigate for your combination of OS and Notes installation.
September 20th, 2006 at 5:39 am
We can change the default settings for Font size in lotus notes .
1.Please checkfor Notes.ini file.
2.open the Text file and check for the entry Display_font_adjustment.
3. If not add the entry Display_font_adjustment = 5 (the number would be depending on the size you Require)
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Mac Instructions
Here is some more info about making this change on a Mac:
Because the Macintosh uses a Notes Preference file that is not a text file (as is the case with the Notes.ini, on a PC), you cannot open the file in a text editor and add the setting noted above. You must use a Notes Preference Editor like Ninix. You can use this utility to change the startup and operating parameters stored with your Notes Preferences file. Then, follow the steps below to add the Display_font_adjustment setting:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17244
(To do this installation, you may need to shut down your client first. Also, you may need to browse to your Notes Preferences file in the System Folder, under Preferences.)
To make a change to the Notes Preferences file, first shut down Notes, then load the Notes Preferences Editor and alter the startup parameters of your choice. Then, restart the Notes program.
After you install Ninix, run it, and add the following preference:
1. When the Notes Preference file opens, choose Item: Add a New Item.
2. In the Item box, type: Display_font_adjustment
3. In the Value box, type in the appropriate value. For example, try 2.
4. Click OK then select File, Quit. When the Preference Editor prompts you to save the file, select Yes.
So — where is the problem?
March 27th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
What if you installed Notes 7.0.2 and the Ninix doesn’t work any longer? That’s where I’m stuck at right now.
March 27th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Answered my own question. From IBM’s website:
In Notes 7.0.2 (and later) client, the Notes Preferences file is a plain text file. You can double-click it to edit it in the Mac’s TextEdit program.
April 28th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Dear Sir/Madame
I am a young ICT student studying ict at a GCSE level. I was wondering if it was acceptable to use one of your images of bad skin to help me?
Please reply, thanks.
tannarules@hotmail.com
July 4th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Also, check out Notes 7 on the Mac. The fonts are much improved; bigger and more readable. Plus, the “the binary format Notes preferences file” has been change to ASCII, so you no longer need your 3rd party tool to edit it.
It’s more responsive and just feels that bit more “maccy”. And, at last, it works with the mouse scroll-wheel on a Mac.
You’re still stuck with unread mail = red though, until Notes 8 (sometime in 2008 for the Mac).
cheers,
– Mike
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
One way you can get around unread emails marked red is by adding all of your normal recipients from your address book(s) to the Senders list under the Tools-Prefs menu, Mail-Message Marking tab. This could be really tedious if you have a lot of recipients…and then you have to keep it updated too.
Just a thought.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Is there any way we can change the font size of e-mail editor in Lotus notes? I changed my company recently. In new company we use Lotus notes 7.0.2, a horrible mail client. I can’t even make out where to change the preferences. There are atleast 5–6 places where you can change different settings. Why can’t all the settings be in a single place? Till now I am not able to make out where to change my password. I am planning to quit company because I have to use mail client extensively & notes bug me somuch.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:20 am
There are some useful tips on Lotus notes here:
http://uts.fiu.edu/Email/V6inotesfaq8.htm#558
Some were asking how to change your default compose fonts in Lotus Notes
File->Preferences->User preferences->basics->default fonts (button middle left)
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 am
I just changed jobs to a company that uses lotus notes. I’ve never had to use this system before and have been enjoying Outlook for many years. I’ve searched everywhere and asked around about changing the font size for email and can’t find anyone who knows how to do that — including the IT guy. Please help. I’m not as young as I used to be and I don’t need to strain my eyes all day trying to read this email font size. Thanks!
October 15th, 2008 at 5:01 am
Three years after this article was written and, along with millions of others, I’m still stuck with all the issues listed.
Notes is a ghastly, ghastly mail client. I cannot believe that I still have to use it. Sure, the backend is more sophisticated, but in terms of HCI it’s still a decade behind Outlook. Come on Lotus! Make some kind of concession to usability and standards!
On my (admittedly old) version of Notes, we still haven’t adopted the word ‘email’. Pathetic.
January 7th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Heeey. I have some good news for you — a long long time after your original post and three months after your update.
Notes 8.5 for the Mac is finally OUT. Gold. Released. Its been in Public beta all of 2008, and was released on 6th of Jan 2009.
You’ll like it. It was actually released at the same time as the windows one.
—* Bill